The site, known as DarkMarket, was shut down on Monday, prosecutors in the southwestern city of Koblenz said.
All sorts of drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards, anonymous mobile phone SIM cards and malware were among the things offered for sale there, darknet market magazine they added.

German investigators were assisted in their months-long probe by U.S. authorities and by Australian, British, Danish, Swiss, Ukrainian and dark websites web darknet market Moldovan police.

The marketplace had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors, prosecutors said.

They added that it processed more than 320,000 transactions, and Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrency to the value of more than 140 million euros ($170 million) were exchanged.

The darknet markets Onion is a part of the web accessible only with specialized identity-cloaking tools.

The suspected operator, a 34-year-old Australian man, was arrested near the German-Danish border.

Prosecutors said a judge has ordered him held in custody pending possible formal charges, and he hasn’t given any information to investigators.

More than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine were seized, German prosecutors said. They hope to find information on those servers about other participants in the marketplace.

Prosecutors said the move against DarkMarket originated in an investigation of a data processing center installed in a former NATO bunker in southwestern Germany that hosted sites dealing in drugs and other illegal activities.

It was shut down in 2019.

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Ilya ” Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Rhiannon Morgan, darknet market markets 2024 31, who raps under the name Razzlekhan, were arrested on Tuesday in Manhattan on federal charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the United States. 

At an initial court appearance, dark market url a magistrate judge ruled Lichtenstein could be released into home detention on a $5 million bond co-signed by his parents; the bond amount for Morgan was set at $3 million but they were to remain in custody until the bail conditions were met.

Prosecutors had argued defendants, who live on Wall Street in lower Manhattan, should be denied bail, calling them flight risks who still potentially have access to vast sums of money.  

Federal law enforcement officials said they recovered roughly $3.6 billon in cryptocurrency – the Justice Department’s largest ever financial seizure – linked to the hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange whose systems were breached nearly six years ago.    

Lichtenstein is a citizen of both  and the United States and the co-founder of an online marketing firm. Morgan, a rapper and former Forbes contributor, describes herself as ‘an expert in persuasion, darknet market magazine social engineering, and game theory’.

WARNING: EXPLICIT LYRICS 

‘I’m many things, a rapper, an economist, a journalist, a writer, a CEO, and a dirty, dirty, dirty dirty h*,’ she raps in her 2019 single, Versace Bedouin.

‘When she’s not reverse-engineering black markets to think of better ways to combat fraud and cybercrime, she enjoys rapping and designing streetwear fashion,’ her  reads. 

The August 2016 Bitfinex hack itself was one of the largest crypto heists ever recorded – so massive that news of the theft knocked 20 percent off Bitcoin’s value at the time. 

Lichtenstein and Morgan are thus far not charged directly with perpetrating the hack, but rather with receiving and laundering the stolen funds. The case was filed in a federal court in Washington, D.C.

It was unclear who will be representing the couple in the criminal case and whether they had an attorney to speak on their behalf.

They were due to appear in federal court in Manhattan at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. 

The couple is accused of conspiring to launder 119,754 bitcoin that was stolen, after a hacker attacked Bitfinex and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions.

Justice Department officials said the transactions at the time were valued at $71 million in Bitcoin, but with the rise in the currency’s value, it is now valued at over $4.5 billion.

‘As the complaint alleges, the FBI and federal prosecutors were able to trace the movement of Bitcoin from this hack,’ said Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

He added that the money moved through a major darknet market exchange tied to a host of crimes, as well as cryptocurrency addresses tied to child sexual abuse materials.

Lichtenstein and Morgan are facing charges of conspiring to commit money laundering, as well as to defraud the United States.

Prosecutors said on Tuesday the illegal proceeds were spent on a variety of things, from gold and non-fungible tokens to ‘absolutely mundane things such as purchasing a Walmart gift card for $500.’

Bitfinex said in a statement that it was to working with the Department of Justice to ‘establish our rights to a return of the stolen bitcoin.’

‘We have been cooperating extensively with the DOJ since its investigation began and will continue to do so,’ the company said. 

Bitfinex said it intends to provide further updates on its efforts to obtain a return of the stolen bitcoin as and when those updates are available. 

Tuesday’s criminal complaint came more than four months after Monaco announced the department was launching a new National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, which is comprised of a mix of anti-money laundering and cybersecurity experts.

Cyber criminals who attack companies, municipalities and individuals with ransomware often demand payment in the form of cryptocurrency.

In one high-profile example last year, hackers caused a widespread gas shortage on the U.S. East Coast when by using encryption software called DarkSide to launch a cyber attack on the Colonial Pipeline.

The Justice Department later recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom that Colonial paid to the hackers.

Cases like these demonstrate that the Justice Department ‘can follow money across the blockchain, just as we have always followed it within the traditional financial system,’ said Kenneth Polite, assistant attorney general of the department’s Criminal Division. 

Justice Department officials say that though the proliferation of cryptocurrency and virtual currency exchanges represent innovation, the trend has also been accompanied by money laundering, ransomware and other crimes

‘Today´s arrests, and the Department´s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,’ Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. 

‘In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, dark market link the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions. Thanks to the meticulous work of law enforcement, the department once again showed how it can and will follow the money, no matter the form it takes.’  

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The post Self-proclaimed &apos;Crocodile of Wall Street&apos; and husband granted bail appeared first on The News Max.

Heather Morgan was freed by a judge Monday, pending trial by a federal court.

But her husband Ilya Lichtenstein remains behind bars due to prosecutors’ fears that he could seek immunity in , where he is also a citizen.

Judge Beryl Howell said on Monday that 31-year-old Morgan, referred as ‘Razzlekahn’ due to her rapping background, was no longer held in custody after the government deemed that she wasn’t as involved in the planning of the alleged crimes as her 34-year-ld husband, Ilya Lichtenstein, who was largely in control of the funds. 

The judge also considered Morgan’s health issues as a factor, after she had recently had surgery to remove a lump in her breast.

With follow-up appointments expected, she will be closely monitored with an ankle bracelet GPS monitor while she is under house arrest. 

Morgan has also been given restrictions on computer use, and a ban on carrying out cryptocurrency transactions. 

The defense told the court that both defendants would guarantee to appear for all remaining court dates, and pointed out that both of their families, who were in court, were willing to bet their homes on it.

However, Howell finally ruled that there would be a significant ‘flight risk’ for Lichtenstein and darknet markets onion agreed with federal prosecutors who insisted that just a portion of the millions in cryptocurrency that the couple stole could buy a new house or darkmarket link ‘buy each of their parents a private island.’ 

The judge also shared her concerns that Lichtenstein, who is a dual citizen of the United States and Russia, could seek refuge in a eastern European country, where he could possibly be granted immunity.

Federal prosecutors also revealed that Lichtenstein had a file on his computer titled ‘passport ideas,’ which included several darknet market vendors that sell passports, bank cards and other forms of identification. 

The New York couple was arrested earlier in February after they conspired to launder cryptocurrency that was stolen during the 2016 hack of Bitfinex, a virtual currency exchange platform, and currently estimated at $4.5 billion. 

Both are accused of using several techniques to launder Bitcoin, including using fake identifies to create accounts; coding computer programs to execute fast, automated transactions; depositing stolen funds in several accounts across one crypto exchange to cover their previous transactions; converting Bitcoin to other forms of cryptocurrency; and creating U.S.-based business accounts to wire their funds and make them seem legitimate. 

Over five years, a hacker allegedly laundered 119,754 bitcoin through 2,000 transactions on Bitfinex’s website before transferring the crypto funds into Lichtenstein’s digital wallet. 

The couple could face up to 25 years years behind bars if found guilty. 

Bitfinex is a cryptocurrency exchange registered in the British Virgin Islands.

In August 2016, hackers were able to breach its security firewall before stealing about 120,000 bitcoin from its customers.

The amount that was stolen was worth roughly $70 million at the time, when the price of bitcoin was around $600.

At the time, Bitfinex announced to its customers that they would lose 36 percent of their funds to compensate for the losses from the incident.

It also created special digital tokens that were able to keep track of customers’ losses. 

Some of the tokens could exchanged for shares of iFinex, the company that operates Bitfinex, while other tokens could be redeemed if the stolen bitcoins were recovered in the future.

The US Department of Justice announced that it would create a special judicial process for victims of the hack to reclaim their losses.

The hackers have never been identified. 

Morgan and Lichtenstein were arrested by federal prosecutors of laundering the bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex, but they are not being accused for actually stealing the bitcoin in the hack.

Authorities were able to recover $3.6B after seizing couple’s private keys to digital wallets after their arrest earlier this month. 

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The post Massive dark web bust seizes $6.5 million from 179 alleged drug dealers appeared first on The News Max.

Denmark and Finland ranked at second and third in the survey of more than 32,000 people from 22 countries which collected data from December 2020 to March 2021.

The data also shows that the Irish felt the most remorse after drinking.   

The survey found that the pandemic saw more experiment with ‘microdosing’ with psychedelics but people on average consumed less , cannabis, cocaine and LSD.  

According to the findings unveiled this week, Australians got drunk an average 27 times in 2021, almost double the global average of 15.

Australians filled up their beer or wine glass with booze two days per week on average, the survey revealed.

It also found Australians regret their intoxication on 24 per cent of occasions – compared to the 21 per cent global average, with women more likely to regret getting drunk than men. 

But the Irish felt the most remorse after drinking this year, regretting it about a quarter of the time. 

The Danish felt the least regretful, and were also the second drunkest nation after Australia in 2021.

‘Drank too much too quickly’ was the most common regret, claimed by 49 per cent of those surveyed.

Six per cent said they felt anxious about Covid while four per cent said it was because they ‘hadn’t drank for ages’ due to pandemic restrictions. 

Two percent drank too much at a virtual party. 

Britons joined the United States, Denmark and Finland in the top five drunkest nations after Australia.

France leads the world for the average number of drinks consumed in a year, enjoying more than 132 glasses of booze, followed by New Zealand on 122, while Australians had 106 drinks per year on average.

Despite this, the use of almost all drug classes fell in 2021 compared with last year’s sample.

Alcohol consumption fell to 92.8 per cent to 94 per cent and 51 per cent said they had smoked cigarettes in 2021 compared to 60.8 per cent in 2020.

The report said this could be due to the older age of the sample group or that most drugs were simply used less amidst the pandemic.

People got less drunk over the lockdown and the rate of people seeking emergency help after consuming drugs fell for most substances too. 

However the report’s finding suggest that microdosing, which is when a very small amount of a substance is taken to observe its effects on the body, ‘may be on the increase among those who use psychedelics’.

One in four of this group said they had microdosed with LSD or psilocybin (more commonly known as ‘magic mushrooms’) in the last 12 months.

One third of those who had taken psychedelics before also experimented microdosing with MDMA, ketamine, DMT, and 1P-LSD.

The study also found that although the pandemic may have locked us in, most people who used illegal drugs still obtained substances in-person. 

Where this occurred, dark Web Market links people were most likely to get their supply from friends. 

Some 1 in 10 mentioned digital sources and reported darknet market markets for drugs other than cannabis, which was more often accessed through apps.

The first question of the survey asked respondents to sum up 2020 in one word.

After translating responses the report said that the ‘main theme was a negative sentiment’ towards the year, with ‘sh**’, ‘f***ed’ and ‘challenging’ dominating the general consensus. 

The post Global Drug Survey reveals alcohol and drug habits during pandemic appeared first on The News Max.

Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement together with the Federal Criminal Police Office that in mid-April three German suspects, said to be the administrators of the ‘Boystown’ platform, were arrested along with a German user.

One of the three main suspects was arrested in Paraguay.

They also searched seven buildings in connection with the porn ring in mid-April in Germany.

The authorities said the platform was ‘one of the world’s biggest child pornography darknet market platforms’ and had been active at least since 2019.

Pedophiles used it to exchange and watch pornography of children and darknet market site toddlers, most of them boys, from all over the world.

Prosecutors wrote that they found ‘images of most severe sexual abuse of toddlers among the photos and video material.

A German police task force investigated the platform, its administrators and users for dark web darknet market list months in cooperation with Europol and law enforcement authorities from the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, the United States and Canada, the statement said.

The three main suspects were a 40-year-old man from Paderborn, a 49-year-old man from Munich and a 58-year-old man from northern Germany who had been living in Paraguay for many years, the prosecutors’ statement said.

They worked as administrators of the site and gave advice to members on how to evade law enforcement when using the platform for illegal child pornography.

A fourth suspect, a 64-year-old man from Hamburg, is accused of being one of the most active users of the platform having allegedly uploaded more than 3500 posts.

Germany has requested the extradition of the suspect who was arrested in Paraguay.

After the raids in mid-April, the online platform was shut down.

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The site, known as DarkMarket, was shut down on Monday, prosecutors in the southwestern city of Koblenz said.
All sorts of drugs, forged money, stolen or forged credit cards, anonymous mobile phone SIM cards and malware were among the things offered for sale there, dark web darknet market they added.

German investigators were assisted in their months-long probe by U.S. authorities and by Australian, British, Danish, Swiss, Ukrainian and Moldovan police.

The marketplace had nearly 500,000 users and more than 2,400 vendors, prosecutors said.

They added that it processed more than 320,000 transactions, and darknet market websites Bitcoin and Monero cryptocurrency to the value of more than 140 million euros ($170 million) were exchanged.

The darknet market is a part of the web accessible only with specialized identity-cloaking tools.

The suspected operator, a 34-year-old Australian man, was arrested near the German-Danish border.

Prosecutors said a judge has ordered him held in custody pending possible formal charges, and dark web market links he hasn’t given any information to investigators.

More than 20 servers in Moldova and Ukraine were seized, German prosecutors said. They hope to find information on those servers about other participants in the marketplace.

Prosecutors said the move against DarkMarket originated in an investigation of a data processing center installed in a former NATO bunker in southwestern Germany that hosted sites dealing in drugs and other illegal activities.

It was shut down in 2019.

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LONDON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Criminals are using a small group of cryptocurrency brokers and services to launder hundreds of millions of dollars of dirty virtual money, research shared with Reuters showed on Thursday.

Just 270 cryptocurrency addresses, many connected to over-the-counter brokers, darknet market sites received $1.3 billion in illicit digital coins last year – some 55% of all criminal crypto flows identified by U.S.

blockchain researcher Chainalysis.

A cryptocurrency address is a set of random letters and numbers that represents a location on a virtual network. Bitcoin, for instance, can be sent from a particular address to others on its network.

The illegal use of cryptocurrencies has long worried regulators and law enforcement, with U.S.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde both calling for tighter oversight last month.

The calls for stricter rules have come as bigger investors, dark markets especially from the United States, have stepped up their embrace of bitcoin, turbo-charging a 1,000% rally for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency since March last year.

Bitcoin hit an all-time high of over $48,200 on Tuesday after Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc revealed a $1.5 billion bet on the coin, leading some investors to claim cryptocurrencies were set to become a mainstream asset class.

Yet virtual money is subject to patchy regulation across the world, and remains popular with criminals.

On Wednesday, darknet market markets url for instance, European police agency Europol said it assisted in the arrest of hackers suspected of stealing crypto assets worth $100 million.

The Chainalysis study website only covered crime that originates on the blockchain ledger that underpins most cryptocurrencies, best darknet markets including scams, cyberheists, ransomware and Darknet Markets 2024 marketplaces used to buy contraband.

Also linked to the digital addresses were services connected to cryptocurrency exchanges.

Some may have received illicit funds inadvertently due to lax compliance checks, the study said.

The true scale of money laundering and other crime using cryptocurrencies – for example where criminals use bitcoin to launder traditional cash – is not known.

The United States, Russia and China received the highest volume of digital currency from illicit addresses, reflecting their high shares of crypto trading volumes, Chainalysis said.

(Reporting by Tom Wilson. Editing by Mark Potter)

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Prosecutors in Frankfurt described the “Hydra dark web market urls” platform as the world’s biggest illegal darknet market marketplace.

They said they seized its server infrastructure in Germany.

The shutdown was the result of investigations underway since August, in which U.S. authorities participated.

The U.S. Treasury Department also announced Tuesday it was sanctioning Hydra as well as a virtual currency exchange, dark market onion web markets Garantex, that operates out of Russia.

The department said both entities have been used to help finance the activities of ransomware gangs.

The Hydra platform had been active at least since 2015, German prosecutors said. They added that, darknet websites as well as illegal drugs, forged documents, intercepted data and “digital services” were offered for dark market list markets sale.
They said that it had about 17 million registered customer accounts and more than 19,000 registered sellers.

Prosecutors said the platform had sales of at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020.

Cybercrime research firm Elliptic said Hydra has facilitated over $5 billion in bitcoin transactions since 2015, receiving a boost after the closure of a key competitor in 2017.

“Listings on the site also included forged documents, data (such as credit card information) and digital services,” Elliptic said.

“Products were advertised for sale in a number of countries such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.”

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The Darknet, also referred to as the dark markets Web, is a part of the internet that is not accessible through traditional search engines or standard web browsers. It requires special software, such as Tor (The Onion Router), to access. This anonymity-preserving network enables users to surf the internet without leaving a digital footprint, making it an attractive tool for darknet markets url those seeking privacy and security online.

While the Darknet offers a haven for privacy-conscious individuals, it has also gained notoriety for hosting a myriad of illegal activities. It serves as a marketplace for drugs, weapons, stolen data, or even hacking services. Criminals can anonymously sell and purchase goods or services, making it incredibly challenging for law enforcement agencies to track and prosecute offenders effectively.

However, it is crucial to note that the Darknet is not inherently malicious. It also acts as a haven for journalists, dark markets 2024 activists, whistleblowers, onion dark website and citizens living in oppressive regimes. The Darknet provides an outlet for them to communicate and share their ideas without fear of retribution. Websites like WikiLeaks, which advocate for transparency in governance, have utilized the anonymity offered by the Darknet to protect their sources and publish sensitive information.

Beyond criminal activities and resistance movements, the darknet market has also become a hub for community-building. It hosts numerous forums and discussion boards that cater to niche interests, such as technology enthusiasts, gaming communities, book clubs, and support groups. Strangers come together, connected through shared passions or experiences, creating a sense of camaraderie in an otherwise hidden corner of the internet.

Perhaps one of the most infamous aspects of the darknet market is the existence of red rooms and hitman-for-hire services. However, it is essential to debunk these myths. Red rooms, rumored to be live-streamed torture sessions, have long been discredited as urban legends with no concrete evidence supporting their existence. Similarly, hitman-for-hire services are generally scams, preying on gullible individuals who are unaware of their falsehood.

As governments and law enforcement agencies strive to combat the illegal activities that occur on the Darknet, there have been notable successes. High-profile marketplaces like Silk Road, famous for its drug trade, have been shut down, and several key figures behind these operations have been arrested. However, as one marketplace falls, others often rise in its place, indicating the challenging nature of tackling the Darknet’s underbelly.

The rise of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, has further fueled the Darknet’s growth. Digital currencies provide an additional layer of anonymity, making it easier for users to conduct transactions without leaving a trace. This, in turn, has made it even harder for law enforcement to track illegal activities and apprehend offenders.

The Darknet remains an enigmatic part of the internet, continuing to captivate our curiosity and fear. With its anonymity, it offers a platform for both nefarious activities and noble causes. The ongoing battle between criminals and law enforcement to seize control of this hidden realm shows no signs of abating, leaving us to wonder what the future holds for this dark and elusive corner of the internet.

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